Anybody remember Memmy O?
ALBANY, Calif. - When Memmy O made her debut as a 2-year-old, trainer Jeff Bonde thought she was pretty special.
She beat colts in her first start, and Friday, nearly two years after that maiden race, she will attempt a Cinderella-story second act when she finally makes her second start in a six-furlong allowance race that is the Golden Gate Fields feature.
Memmy O suffered a cracked pelvis after her May 10, 2001, debut and had to be sent to the equine veterinarian hospital at UC-Davis. Her recovery took more than one year, and Bonde has only recently been able to put her back into training.
"I've been training 30 years and never seen an injury like that," Bonde said.
Before the injury, Bonde never would have suspected that Memmy O would be running in a nonwinners-of two-race in 2003. "This filly can run," he said.
She has a series of good works for her comeback, including a bullet five-furlong work of 58.60 seconds on Jan. 2.
It will be comeback time for the majority of the seven older fillies and mares in the race, although the others have been away from the races far less time than Memmy O.
Brass Support makes her first start since a sixth-place finish in a one-mile turf race at Bay Meadows last June 9. Primarily a claimer, the 7-year-old Brass Support has eight victories, only one less than the combined victory total of her six rivals.
Blue Moon Special, twice stakes- placed at Emerald Downs last summer, makes her first start since finishing seventh in the British Columbia Breeders' Cup Oaks at Hastings Park last Sept. 7.
Benefit Party, runner-up in last July's Fairfield Stakes at Vallejo, makes her first start since a Sept. 26 sprint at Bay Meadows.
Even Gyrene has been off for more than a month since an eighth-place finish in a 1 1/16-mile, $40,000 optional claimer on the turf here Dec. 12.
Of the two entrants who have run this year, Our Mango may be the one for the comebackers to beat. She missed by a head to Annie T as a 33-1 shot in a Jan. 3 allowance race after taking a narrow lead in the lane. Frugality was third in that race, 1 1/4 lengths farther back.
Our Mango has been going off at high odds but has run fairly well in her three starts at this meeting. She was fourth, 3 3/4 lengths behind Broke in Blairsden on Nov. 22 and fourth, 1 3/4 lengths behind Full Moon Lady on Dec. 13.
* Fourteen 3-year-old fillies were nominated for Saturday's $60,000-added Miss California Stakes at six furlongs. Northern California stakes winners Market Garden, Tale of a Dream, and Viansa Ossidiana are among the nominees.